All business owners need better writing skills

Content provided by a guest contributor.

As a business owner you might think writing isn’t that important. You constantly have to manage all facets of your business and need to have an opinion on everything from how best to move your company forward to which brand of coffee your kitchen should stock. How could you possibly find the time to worry about your writing?

But the fact is every piece of communication you send out says something about you. It speaks to your professionalism and the amount of effort which you put into everything you do. Every email you dash off, every text message shot to an employee and every LinkedIn update says something about you. So it is up to you to decide what it is you want to say.

Impact of business writing

Aren’t convinced? Consider a Grammarly study of 100 LinkedIn profiles. Each of the employees they looked at had worked for no more than three employees during the first 10 years of their career. Half were promoted during those 10 years to director-level while the other half were not. The survey found:

Professionals with fewer grammar errors in their profiles were promoted to higher positions. Those who weren’t promoted to director-level made 2.5 times as many errors in their profiles.

Fewer grammar errors meant more promotions. As the number of grammar errors increased, the number of promotions decreased.

Fewer grammar errors linked to frequent job changes. Those who worked for the same company for more than 10 years made 20 percent more grammar mistakes than those who worked six jobs in the same period.

Says Grammarly chief executive Brad Hoover: “People with better grammar may be more ambitious in their search for promising career opportunities, or job-hoppers may simply recheck their résumés between jobs.”

Bad writing can have numerous negative effects on your business. It could impact your business plan and hamper your efforts to attract investors. It could affect your communication with employers and customers.

Tips to improve your business writing

Many people think they aren’t good writers and don’t attempt to become better. But the reality is writing is something which can be improved over time and business writing skills can be taught. The most important tip you’ll ever need to improve your writing is to keep it simple. Just remember to KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Here are a few other tips:

Know what you want to say.

Stay away from jargon.

Put the most important information at the beginning. Cut the rest.

Keep sentences short.

Reread and rewrite.

Writing is a skill which improves with practice. Remember, reading is the single most important thing you can do to improve your writing. Read often and read everything you can find. Even the side of your cereal box.